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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

There is nothing worse … nothing … than being on a train with a bunch of colored women laughing. I’m guessing.

See, while riding the train with these eleven Black women, well, ten Black women and one white woman … what the hell was she doing there … who were having a good time, a white woman was infuriated by all the laughter and walked right up to the women and told them their laughter was bothering her and that this was “not a bar.”

At the next stop, the Eleven Angry Women were escorted off the train and met by police, though no charges were filed.

Oh, wait, I got ahead of myself. I hate when that happens.

See, these eleven women were part of a book club, and were riding the train … in California … in the Napa Valley.

It was a wine train that takes people through wine country and serves wine while doing so.

According to a Facebook post by Lisa Renee Johnson, one of the women in the group, the trouble started when the woman in that photo approached them and said she was annoyed by their laughter. A maître d’ then came by and told the women they were making too much noise and when he was asked who was complaining he replied, “People’s faces are uncomfortable.”

Huh. What?

The Napa Valley Wine Train posted a message to their Facebook page accusing the women of “verbal and physical abuse toward other guests and staff” but they quickly deleted that post, though not before Johnson captured a screenshot.

The group received a full refund but Johnson also wants an apology.

“It was humiliating. I’m really offended to be quite honest.I felt like it was a racist attack on us. I feel like we were being singled out.”

Let me see if I have this right; a group of women, out for a day of traveling through wine country, on a wine train, while drinking wine, were laughing and having fun, but because some people’s faces were “uncomfortable” they were removed from the train to face the police.

Uh huh. Welcome to America where it’s apparently not all right to be caught #LaughingWhileBlack.

Aren't people allowed to laugh anymore? I go out with friends and laugh, no-one tells me to shutup....maybe it's because I'm white? Equality is for everyone....not just the miserable gits on the wine tour.

I agree with Anonymous - it really doesn't seem like a racially motivated act. Also, call me a stick-in-the-mud, but if people were being obnoxiously loud, I'd possibly complain as well. (Though I'd need audio or video to really determine if this was justified or not. The police involvement seems like too much either way.)